An ‘Originalist’ Court Overturns an Originalist Decision

Chief Justice John Roberts overturned the 1935 Supreme Court decision Humphrey’s Executor v. United States, which allowed Congress to create independent agencies with members protected from presidential removal. The article argues that Humphrey’s was grounded in originalist constitutional principles but was rejected in favor of a 1926 decision (Myers v. United States) that emphasized broader presidential removal authority.